The present invention relates to stick insertion apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for at least partially automating the task of mounting food products on sticks.
It is a long established custom for vendors at ball games, carnivals, fairs and at other places and events, to offer food products which have been mounted on sticks so that the products can be more easily prepared by the seller and more easily handled by the consumer. Well-known examples of products which are dispensed in this manner include deep-fried, batter-covered frankfurters, candied apples and corn on the cob.
Heretofore, food products such as those mentioned have been mounted on rounded, pointed sticks in a strictly manual operation. The process of manually forcing a stick into a food product can be a relatively slow and sometimes physically difficult one, particularly where the food product has a firm, unyielding core, such as a corn cob. Because the manual operation is time consuming, the labor costs are relatively high when compared to the normal selling prices for such products.
Also, because the task of manually forcing sticks into food products can be tedious and difficult, persons performing such a task may fail to consistently align the sticks with the products into which they are being inserted. The resulting food products can have an unpleasantly nonuniform appearance which subtly affects their saleability. Moreover, customers have been known to object when they bite down on a pointed stick end protruding from the normally inedible core of a food product such as an apple or ear of corn.